Applicant claims priority under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 of Austrian Application No. A 1519/99 filed Sep. 3, 1999. Applicant also claims priority under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7365 of PCT/AT00/00227 filed Aug. 25, 2000. The international application under PCT article 21 (2) was not published in English.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a briefcase, comprising a case body consisting of a frame made-up of a base, an upper frontal wall which lies opposite said base and side frontal walls between the base and the upper frontal wall and a back wall and a front wall which can be opened.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With briefcases of this type the front wall forms a cover which is joined to the base of the case body, so that this cover formed by the front wall can be easily swung up, whenever the case body is resting on its back wall. If, because of the lack of a table surface, such briefcases are used as a writing pad or as support for work papers, in that the case body is rested on the upper leg in the sitting position for example, difficulties arise because the back and front walls run parallel. This means that the front wall of the case body resting on the upper legs falls away from the body in a normal sitting position, when the knee is not raised and an unnatural sitting position is assumed. Furthermore, any attempt to open the front wall is hindered by the work documents lying thereon, which have to be held on to awkwardly when the front wall is swung up about a swivel axis parallel to the ground.
To attain an inclined surface with briefcases, it is known (FR 2 689 734 A1) to provide a desk board on the back wall of the case body, which can be folded about an axis parallel to the edge into a work position when the briefcase is lying flat and can be supported in this work position by a support flap relative to the back wall. The disadvantage of these known briefcases is not only the additional expense created by the desk board, but also the fact that the interior of the briefcase is difficult to access after the desk board is folded back, without jeopardising the position of the documents lying on the desk board.
To be able to advantageously display documents which can be packed in a briefcase, it is also known (U.S. Pat. No. 4,314,625 A) to provide a desk board which can swing inwards to the front wall on the front wall of the case body, which can be folded out when the front wall is swung up and supported on the case body, creating a corresponding inclined surface, on which the documents to be shown are kept well in sight. Similarly, it is known in another construction (U.S. Pat. No. 4,420,270 A) to display visual material which is kept on a desk board as in a ring binder, which can be swung into a case body. Because the desk board is joined to the swinging front wall of the case body, the front wall forms a swing support for the desk board, which is displaced from the swung-in rest position into the folded-out work position with the aid of a tie. The drawback to these constructions is that the case body is only meant for accommodating the documents to be displayed and consequently cannot be utilised as a briefcase for storing other documents.
The aim of the invention is to provide a briefcase of the type described at the outset, such that it can be used advantageously as a writing pad, without having to forego a comfortable sitting position or easy access to the briefcase interior while the case body is being used as a paper pad.
The invention solves this task by the fact that the front wall of the case body resting on the back wall forms an inclined surface which is sloped from the base to the upper frontal wall and has two laterally adjacent cover sections which are mounted in such a way that they can swing open about the edges pointing towards each other and extending in the direction of the height of the front wall.
Designing the front wall as a desk surface, which when the case body is rested on its back wall slopes from the base of the case body to the upper frontal wall, provides a beneficial writing pad which also enables favourable ergonometric conditions for someone writing in a sitting position when the case body is set on their thigh. Despite the frontal wall being designed as a sloping inclined surface the contents of the briefcase can be accessed easily via two laterally adjacent cover sections, because these cover sections are mounted in such a way that they can swing open about the edges pointing towards each other, so that papers laid on the inclined surface can remain in the vicinity of one cover section, while the other cover section is opened up from the associated side frontal wall of the case body. These cover sections which can swing towards one another act like envelopes when opened at the same time, between which the documents resting on the inclined surface are folded up together like a book, easily preventing papers from unavoidably sliding off the inclined surface. Since normal file documents are oriented in size to generally accepted paper formats, then in practice subdividing the front wall into two adjacent cover sections barely causes any restrictions with respect to the contents of the briefcase to be accommodated.
To prevent papers laid on the desk surface of the front wall from sliding off due to inclination of the desk, it is recommended to provide the upper frontal wall with a limit stop projecting over the inclined surface, which ensures that papers laid thereon are held back accordingly, without impairing handling of the briefcase, because the overhang of the limit stop over the desk surface can be comparatively small.
Although both cover sections of the front wall can be joined to a web bridging the briefcase opening, structural conditions are particularly advantageous if they are joined to a partition dividing the case body, as this partition creates front wall support resistant to bending in its middle region, which is of benefit to the support function of the desk surface. In this connection it must be considered that the case body should be as light as possible.
The desk function of the briefcase can be complemented advantageously by lighting for the inclined surface, in such a way that the case body can form a floor compartment defined by an intermediate bottom for accommodating such a pull-out lighting unit for the desk surface If required, this floor compartment is opened and the lighting unit is withdrawn from the floor compartment to provide adequate illumination for the desk surface. If light-emitting diodes arranged on a beam are used for illumination, the advantages of a comparatively small energy consumption can be associated with those of minimal heat generation, without having to sacrifice adequate light strength. If the beam is arranged to swivel, the direction of illumination can also be adjusted.